Resurrecting the past: the Altalena affair

Altalena was the nom de plume of Ze’ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky, soldier, writer, politician of the Zionist movement and spiritual progenitor of Menachem Begin and his right wing successors. Active from World War 1 until his death in 1940, he was the fons et origo of militant Zionism and a source of inspiration for Irgun Tsvai Leumi (abbreviated to Etzel), the terrorist organisation which rocked the British  Mandate with its ruthless policy of bombing and retaliation against British soldiers vainly attempting to maintain a balance of power between Jews and Arabs in strife-torn Palestine.

The name ‘Altalena’ was taken by an Irgun ship commissioned to bring arms into Palestine in order to bolster a Jewish army formed outside the ranks of the main Jewish defence force, Haganah.  A bitter clash ensued between David Ben Gurion, who feared an Irgun attempt to seize power in the new Jewish state and Menachem Begin, who fought to retain the independence of Irgun in the ongoing battle against the Arabs.

Diplomacy failed to achieve rapprochement, gunfire was exchanged and in the ensuing bombardment the Altalena caught fire off the Israeli coast not far from Tel Aviv. Lives were lost on both sides even though Begin hoisted a white flag and ordered his men to surrender to the Israeli authorities.

The Altalena affair is only mentioned as a footnote in a book by Christopher Sykes on the tripartite conflict between Jews, Arabs and the British, “Crossroads to Israel”, which offers a reliable and impartial account of  the doomed British Mandate and the part played by the various protagonists battling to either uphold or destroy the Zionist state.

I am resurrecting the episode now because I was taken aback by the vehemence with which a friend referred to it in the context of his withering condemnation of both Ben Gurion and the British administration and his unadulterated praise for Menachem Begin and I wanted to investigate the veracity of his claims. My friend insisted that if it had not been for Begin and the actions of the Irgun, the state of Israel would never have been established.

What I discovered was that in the aftermath of the Altalena affair, both Ben Gurion and Begin exhibited a remarkable spirit of magnanimity towards each other. Begin, who demanded that his own soldiers surrender to the Israel authorities, famously said, “There will be no civil war with the enemy at our gates” and years later, in June 1967, on the eve of the Six Day War,  he joined a delegation which visited Ben Gurion in retirement at Sde Boker, urging him to return to the premiership. After the meeting, Ben Gurion said that if he had known Begin as he did now, the face of history would have been different. Such an attitude of reconciliation in leaders who had fought each other on different sides of the political divide is rare.

I can understand the bitterness of Begin in the wake of the Holocaust. Those were terrible times and there were many who saw recourse to violence as the only way forward. ‘Eyn breyra’ (there is no alternative) was the watchword. But violence alone has never achieved peace and my respect for those who have put Zionism on a military footing is equalled by my admiration for the likes of Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Goldmann, who saw the need for diplomacy as well as strength.

Israel is not weak in a military or economic sense but its diplomatic position in the international arena is precarious. It is losing the propaganda war against diehard enemies like Hamas, who have only one mission in life, which is no murder Jews, regardless of the cost to their own people. These are the elements which must be marginalised, since they can never be absolutely defeated.

So I say to my friend and to those Jews who favour a violent solution to the conflict: it is time to bury old grievances and refrain from seeing things in simplistic terms. We must be prepared to cultivate friendly relations with former enemies and abandon a headstrong ‘go it alone’ mentality.

The Altalena caught fire in June, 1948. By all means let us remember that tragic moment among many others. At the same time let us give it a decent burial and treasure the memory of Jabotinsky, Begin, Ben Gurion and all those Jews on both sides of the internecine divide who gave their lives in the struggle to build the land we hold dear.